Sarajevska Princeza

Sarajevo This is about my homeland Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Siege of Sarajevo - Cultural Genocide in Bosnia - Genocide in Srebrenica - We dare not forget - The killing days - In the heart of Europe - Concentration camps in Bosnia - Ethnic cleansing of Bosnians - Shelling of the City - Francis A. Boyle - Bill Clinton - Bosnian Nation and Bosnian people all over the world. Survivors.

13.09.2008.

What would you do if you were in Srebrenica with your family on July 11, 1995?

In the video #5, see below, war criminal Serb Ratko Mladic said:

"Here we are on July 11, 1995 in Serbian Srebrenica( Serbs just occupied it )for another Serbian big holiday -- we are giving this city to you as a gift and finally the moment came to revenge against the Turks on this territory!".

Turkish Ottoman Empire was in Balkans hundreds of years ago. Ottomans are already dead. Bosnians are not Turks, in fact they had own Bosnian Kingdom that has been occupied like so many other countries in the past by Turkish Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungary, Nazi Germany and now Serbs. They have nothing to do with Ottoman Empire which by the way doesn't exist any longer. Bosnians are multiethnic and multireligious members of Bosnian Nation! Yet under Ratko Mladic's order entire Bosnian population who stayed there in Srebrenica were murdered except a few who escaped through the mountains and managed to survive.

Imagine you are happily living in the village as a child, a young person, a civilian, a mother or a father... You don't have any guns and you can't defend your family, your home, your children, your old mother and father, and cousins neither your wife or husband.

In fact, you can't survive even if you are by yourself. Serbs arrive into your village heavily armed from all over the places and with all their modern war equipment of ex -YU Army they totally destroy your village. You can not go anywhere, because there is no way to go. Serbs surrounded entire Bosnia!!!! More importantly concentration camps and genocide was in entire Bosnia!!! The entire Bosnia was a camp!! But let's focus on this one only one city - Srebrenica (again).

There is no food, no water, no electricity, no phone and no place to live. You have a family, small children who are crying, old people dying and you are surrounded from all sides. There is a forest all over the village but in order for you to get out of forest you must go through Serbs first. You will see on the videos people caught from the forest! You will also see Serbs calling them to get back and surrender, and assuring them nobody will kill them.

Once you surrender to your enemy you can consider yourself dead.

If you are a man you know you will die because they came there to kill you!!! In fact all Bosnians, (NON-Serbs) need to be killed NOT JUST YOU. They have names of each family, and most Serbs already had left the village because they were told what is going to happen, so what are you going to do? You have no guns so you can not defend yourself.

You have no way to brake through Serbian army that surrounded village. You did not invade their country they came to your village. You did not go to Belgrade they came to your land, to your home, to the place you were born, where you grew up, where your family have lived for a very long time.

If you go through the forest your children and wife can't go that far. Maybe wife could of, but children can not. They cry and draw attention to enemy instantly. Your dad if sick can not walk! You have to carry him on your back, but for how long? You can't cook and make a fire, because if you do Serbs will locate your position, find you and kill all of you.

You are already exhausted because there is no food, no drinks no medicine, nothing!!!!

If you are by yourself you could take your own life. Just hang yourself on the nearest tree, you could have done perhaps that, because at least you would die instantly with less pain and suffering. If you don't kill yourself, you will be dead sooner or later anyway. There was no hope for this people over there!! Serbs did not have much compassion or feeling, they would not spare you if you counted on that. They don't know you but that doesn't matter. They believe you threaten their existence in your own homeland they want to occupy for themselves and live there "happily ever after" in a fantasy land called "Greater Serbia". After they kill you, and your entire family they will attempt to hide all traces of Bosnian existence and genocide.

But if you have a family, children and entire village with your friends, relatives, cousins, people you grew up with, you feel responsible and you can't leave them in the time of war!

You only have two choices: 1) to die sooner or 2) to die later. Whatever you chose you will be dead, you just don't know when exactly. Maybe you hope that some miracle happens. People often believe despite all evidence, they hope that something will happen and change everything. They counted on UN. UN Dutch representatives stationed in Srebrenica promised protection and then failed to keep their promise. Serbs will eventually get all men, children and women, put all people in the buses, later will separate you from your children, family, friends and your wife and you will never see them again.

Did you know that many Bosnians in Srebrenica wanted to die instantly but this privilege was not given to them, and they were left to suffer? Some were shot in the head. Others first tortured, let to suffer with no possibility to die quickly, and then killed, many were slaughtered. How can anyone not understand the mothers of Srebrenica? They can not have peace until they actually see the remains of dead body. It's hard for them to believe they lost loved ones this way...

This ethnic cleansing and genocide has been ordered by Serbian leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic who are considered "Saints" to Serbs. This is not a joke!

While you are in Srebrenica, they will break your legs, hands, heads, they will maybe shoot you in the head, cut your throat or rape you like in concentration camps held by Serbs - Omarska and Trnoplje, and they could order you to rape your father or maybe your family member. Some people were begging to be killed instead.

This is very sad..... Very sad...These people who have done these crimes still live free, majority.... just a few were persecuted so far? Not 8.000 for sure!

Children were taken from the mother's hands and brutally slaughtered. This can only be done by evil. How could Serbs be manipulated into a hate of this proportion? Did not they go to school? Or was it a communism? But Bosnians were in communism too and Slovenians, and many other countries, so how come they haven't committed genocide?

There is no excuse and no justification, no matter what -- the entire aggression on Republic of Bosnia should never be forgotten. Bosnian Nation survived but... Serbs took 49% of Bosnian territory through genocide and ethnic cleansing.

There is nothing that can make up for lost lives and all pain and suffering. And these two butchers Serb Ratko Mladic and Montenigran Serb Radovan Karadzic deserve to die 8.000 times exactly the same way how each and every Bosnian have died. There was no Court or trial for victims. They could not say - I am not guilty. They could not defend themselves. They did not have a justice so why should now --- they have it?

Bosnian people, I, we, all of us thought genocide can not possibly happen in the heart of Europe but Bosnian war in 1992 proved it wrong. There is nothing bad in liking your country and loving your nation, but if you become nationalistic to the point that your mind is blurred and you can not see good things in anyone who is not like your "people" then you need to examine yourself.

Sarajevska Princeza

Bosnian woman managed to cross over to Bosnian territory where Bosnian young solders found her. Was captive of Serbian rape camps. Click on the larger photo to see her facial expression, she looks so sad and lost.

13.09.2008.

No, NO! I am not Ratko Mladic I am Ratiana!!

05.09.2008.

Serbian Fugitives = Serbian Saints ( until when ? )

"A file photo taken on June 18, 2005 ( see below ) shows a woman watching pictures of Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic (top C) and his former army chief Ratko Mladic (top R) - two top fugitives who have been on the run for a decade since they were charged with genocide by the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague, and Draza Mihailovic, (top L), former leader of Chetniks - Serb royalists who fought both the Nazis and the communist Partisans in World War II, together with pictures of saints important for the Serb Orthodox Church, during the xafs day in northwestern Bosnian town of Prijedor."A woman watching pictures. Getty Images/ AFP

You can see on the picture these three men are compared with Saints. See larger photoHere.

Serbia said on July 21, 2008 that its security forces captured Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Montenigran Serb leader accused of genocide, after nearly 13 years on the run from the UN war crimes tribunal." (daylife.com)INDICTMENT was because of aggression, genocide and ethnic cleansing of all NON-Serbs.

Karadzic. Photo by Rikard Larma.

"File picture from Bosnian police records show Radovan Karadzic, now ill-famous (sic) Serb leader and indicted war criminal, when he was arrested for industrial crimes in November 1984. This photo was recovered in 1992 from a Sarajevo trash bin by Metro photographer Rikard Larma". ( flickr.com )

An estimated 15,000 children died in this three-year-long civil war. (UNICEF)

An estimated 200,000 people were killed during the war which also produced 3 million refugees who were forcibly expelled from their homes by Serbian and Croatian ethnic cleansing. (UNHCR) After the Dayton Peace Accord, fewer than 10 percent of refugees were able to return home. The majority of refugees were displaced throughout the former Yugoslavia and the world. (UNHCR)

05.09.2008.

The copy of the entire Karadzic's website under the name of Dr Dragan Dabic

This is the copy of the entire Karadzic's website under the name of Dr Dragan Dabic before the site was taken down: www.dragandabic.com In case anyone wonders what was written on the website here is the entire content:

PAGE 1:

Dr. Dragan Dabic Healing from Within: The Ever Increasing Need for Alternative Viewpoints in the Modern World.

The expression "alternative medicine", as used in the West today, takes into the consideration any healing practice "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine". As such they could include chiropractice, herbalism, Yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, different Indian practices, naturopathy, meditation, bioenergy, massage, hypnosis, homeopathy and diet-based therapies, in addition to other alternative practices.

Holistic approach is not a method or a treatment, rather, it is an everyday philosophy of how life should be lived. Holistic health and fitness viewpoints place emphasis on reaching and maintaining good health as requiring more than just taking care of the various singular components that make up the human body. It points out that emotional and spiritual well-being is the key not only for happy, but also healthy life.

The goal is a wellness that encompasses the entire person, rather than just the lack of physical pain or disease. As such this approach is in stark contrast to traditional medicine which focuses on treating symptoms without attempting to examine anything else."

Now this part below was about:
- his character,
- interests,
- career,
- credentials,
- his life and
- reputation. All made up!

Dr. Dragan "David" Dabic was born some six decades ago in a small Serbian village of Kovaci, near Kraljevo. As a young boy he liked to explore nearby forests and mountains, spending a lot of time on Kopaonik mountain where he tended to pick the omnipresent, natural and potent medicinal herbs that grew at those green pastures.

As a young man ( photo has been deleted ) he moved to Belgrade, and then on to Moscow where he graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree (spec. in Psychiatry) at the Moscow State University (Lomonosov). After Russia, Dr. Dabic travelled around India and Japan, after which he settled in China where he specialized in alternative medicine, with a special emphasis on the mind-body control, meditation, Yoga, spiritual cleansing, as well as Chinese herbs.

In mid-1990s Dr. Dabic returned back to mother Serbia for good, and ever since then emerged as one of the most prominent experts in the field of alternative medicine, bioenergy, and macrobiotic diet in the whole of the Balkans, and is frequent contributor to the regional alternative health magazines, and guest expert with numerous TV appearances and on many public forums, seminars and symposiums (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Sombor, Smederevo, Kikinda...) dedicated to these issues and topics.

Note: Dr. Dabic eats locally produced organic, unprocessed natural food. He loves brown rice, legumes, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried figs and water. He takes brisk two-hour daily walks in the city's parks, or in nature." Dr. Dragan Dabic currently resides on Yuri Gagarin street in New Belgrade, but for public forum invitations, television appearances or private consultations he can be reached directly at the following contact: healingwounds@dragandabic.com

Did not you notice the entire site was in English including the email!? Maybe he wanted to have customers beyond Serbia. Here he listed his favorite proverbs.

· If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, teach people.

· If your strength is small, don't carry heavy burdens. If your words are worthless, don't give out any advice.

· You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

· He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.

· He who turns-in his own, shall dig two graves. "

Karadzic as Dabic. AFP/Getty Images

"This undated picture shows Radovan Karadzic (L), alias healer Dragan Dabic, posing with Serbian "bio energy expert" Mina Minic in an undisclosed place in Belgrade. War crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic practised alternative medicine on Serb patients in Vienna during his years on the run, using yet another assumed identity, Austrian newspapers reported on July 25, 2008. An Austrian-Serb couple told the Kurier newspaper they had recognised pictures of the captured Karadzic as the healer who until just over a year ago had treated the wife to help her fall pregnant." ( dailylife.com )

Here you can see that domain was registered in the US. Someone obviously in the US had to help him with this.

03.09.2008.

'I am waiting. No one has ever said sorry'

In 1992 Ed Vulliamy revealed the existance of the Bosnian concentration camps. The image of Fikret Alic showed for the first time how Bosnians were brutalized in Serbian concentration camps. In the week of Radovan Karadzic's arrest our reporter returned to find Alic. In this moving dispatch, he - and other survivors - tell of their anger, despair and continued attempts to try to rebuild their shattered lives. By: Ed Vulliamy, The Observer/Guardian UK

Most people would not recognize him now - he has a full and manly frame, and a puckish smile; he has even had his teeth fixed. But I would know it anywhere, from the mixture of mischief, a deep inward stare and that mop of hair.

Sixteen summers ago next week, Fikret Alic was probably the most familiar figure in the world. His skeletal, emaciated torso and xylophone ribcage, behind the barbed wire at Trnopolje concentration camp, embodied the violence unleashed on Bosnia's Muslim civilians at the orders of Radovan Karadzic, the man due to be taken to The Hague this weekend to answer charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

As Karadzic awaits his fate, Fikret Alic is back in Bosnia. Although currently living in Sonderberg, Denmark, he has bought a flat in a block still under construction in Kozarac town centre, and is here to save money to rebuild the nearby family home out of which he was chased in 1992, having completed the foundations. The arrest of the man who organized his torments has left a bittersweet taste.

'I am happy and I am angry,' he says. 'For 13 years, he was living protected as a free man. And for the three years before that, all the world knew what he was doing, from my camp to Srebrenica, but did nothing to stop him. So now the truth will be told, but what has happened to us all this time? Now at last I am happy just because I am alive and here, with my wife and children, and not dead like so many others. But while he was free, I was broken, too.'

I came across Fikret Alic in 1992 at the Trnopolje concentration camp, where I had gone at Karadzic's invitation, while trying to inspect the gulag of concentration camps he had set up across northwestern Bosnia - places of reputed mass murder, torture, mutilation and rape - all of which Karadzic denied, insisting: 'See for yourself.' We took up his suggestion and were directed down a seamless chain of command, first from Karadzic's doorstep to the gates of a place of horror called Omarska, then, after being bundled out before seeing too much, Trnopolje, where Fikret and others languished behind the wire. They had arrived that morning, he said then, from yet another camp, Keraterm, where during a single night 130 men had been massacred in a hangar. Fikret said he had been ordered to help load the bodies on to bulldozers, but, weeping, had his place taken by an older man.

Now Fikret and I meet again, this time to celebrate the arrest of the man who orchestrated the most terrible days of his life. After the embrace, there's a hollow laugh and a pledge that next time we really must get together for another reason. We are talking in Fikret's native town of Kozarac, a place that the Bosnian Serb leader hoped to wipe from the map. As Karadzic languishes in Belgrade, Friday night is getting into gear, the fairground is grinding into action, children are whooping despite the rain; music is throbbing out of bars and cars on to the warm, wet streets and girls on heels like stilts strut into town. The boys' haircuts are stiff with gel and families of three generations are out for a stroll. It could be a libidinous seaside town in Southern Europe.

Kozarac now calls itself 'the biggest small town in the world. Yet 16 summers ago this week, when I came through here on Karadzic's authority, escorted by his guards, it had been burned to the ground and the stench of charred masonry was still heavy in the air. Its inhabitants - apart from a few Serbs tending their animals as though nothing had happened - were either dead, driven out, or taken to one of the gulag of concentration camps. There was no war here in the Prijedor region of Bosnia, just a sudden, vicious and brazen attempt to eradicate an entire population by killing, incarceration, rape and enforced deportation. According to the master plan of which Karadzic is accused, all the people on these streets this Friday night, and in these rebuilt houses, were intended to be dead, gone or never born.

But Kozarac has been rebuilt by the hard work and defiance of a diaspora, some of whom come back for the summer and others who have come back to live - albeit in the Serbian half of Bosnia, the so-called entity Republika Srpska. The mosques are rebuilt, too. As Edin Kararic, a truck driver living in Watford - an Omarska survivor who has opened the Mustang bar on the main street - said to me a few years ago: 'It's not hard to get money for a mosque, but it is extremely hard work to get money to rebuild our houses. I don't go to the mosque, but I like it that they are here, because every minaret is a finger up to the people who tried to put us out. It says: We're back!'

Every year now, there is a commemoration service at Omarska, making this the gathering of a unique tribe in Europe, Clan Omarska. This year's remembrance takes place next week. A local group called Izvor, formed by camp survivor Edin Ramulic, calculates that for all the thousands of bodies already uncovered 3,205 people are still unaccounted for.

As the night unfolds around us, Fikret tells about the hunt in Trnopolje, after our visit, for anyone who talked to the press that day in 1992. He talks about how seven people had been killed for doing so, and how he had had to hide for 10 days after our meeting on 5 August, at which point he joined a convoy of deportees on a terrifying mountain exodus at gunpoint across no-man's land and into Bosnian -held territory. Disguised as a woman he was saved from being taken into a group to be raped because he smelt so badly.

Later in the conflict he had tried to fight in the remarkable 17 Krajiske Brigade, based in Travnik, made up of ethnically cleansed men and women from around Prijedor determined to go home. But he kept coughing up blood and was discharged.

After living in Slovenia and Croatia he had a breakdown. 'I was talking to a tree about my time in the camps. I might as well have been in a straitjacket.' Then came a chance to go to Denmark, a meeting with a Bosnian woman from Sanski Most, near Kozarac, in 1999, 'and when I woke up, I was married,' he laughs. Work loading trucks at a slaughterhouse ended in 2000 after an accident in which a 200kg (32st) carcass fell on his back, but although he does not receive disability pension, the couple have clawed together the money to buy the lease on their flat in Kozarac, and are considering rebuilding the family home, which lies in a small hamlet, surrounded by other incinerated houses, a few returnees and their killers and torturers.

Of his persecutors he now says: 'No one has ever said sorry for what they did. I don't know what it is about these people - I can show you five killers any time we go to Prijedor. Either they are proud of what they did, or pretend it did not happen. I am waiting for someone to admit what they did, or apologize, but they do not, they never will. They have built a monument outside the camp where I was, but it is to Serbs who died, not us. I don't know of any Serbs who died there.'

The long road to Fikret, Trnopolje and Omarska - and to being back in Kozarac last week - began in London at the end of July 1992, when my colleague Maggie O'Kane and the American Roy Gutman published reports from fugitive deportees from Bosnia telling of beatings, torture and murder in the camps, among them Omarska - the place that would emerge as the second most deadly killing field in Bosnia's war, after Srebrenica.

When he invited us to visit the camps, Karadzic greeted us with that professorial, wayward air and faux academic veneer that belied his deranged vision, but left no doubts about his authority over Omarska, promising that we would enter the camp on his word. He sent us down the chain of command to Omarska, first to his Deputy President, Nikola Koljevic, who would be our supervisor, then the crisis staff of the nearest town and administrative centre for Omarska, Prijedor. On the way there we passed the incinerated ruins of Kozarac - 'They are the people who fled because they would not accept the peace,' said our escort, Colonel Milan Milutinovic of the Bosnian Serb army.

After hours of obfuscation and failed attempts by the committee to take us to other camps that had already been inspected by the Red Cross, we set out for Omarska, eventually passing through the back gates of the camp and into another world.

A column of 30 men emerged blinking into the sunlight from the depths of a hangar. They were in various states of decay, some skeletal, with shaven heads. They drilled across a tarmac piste under the watchful eye of a machine-gunner and into a 'canteen', where they gulped down watery bean soup like famished dogs, keeping their bread roll for later. They were told they were allowed to speak freely, but they clearly dared not, the guards swinging their guns; there are few things like the burning eyes of a prisoner who dare not speak what he yearns to say. One man, Dzemal Partusic, said only: 'I do not want to tell any lies, but I cannot tell the truth.' Another, Serif Velic, replied when I asked him about a wound to his head, that he had fallen - it had happened naturally.

When we tried to get to the hangar in which the prisoners were held, we were stopped by the commandant and Prijedor's chief of police, Simo Drjlaca, cocking their guns. Time, and subsequent trials at The Hague, would tell what Karadzic wanted to hide - a nightmare of killing, torture, mutilation, starvation, drunken sadism and rape.

Like Alic, Serif Velic also joined the 17 Krajiske 'ethnically cleansed' brigade after suffering in the camps. This week, he, too, was back in Kozarac, living next to a stone marking a mass grave of 456 bodies in the nearby village of Kevljani, and pointing out another likely mass grave in the field behind his house, where the vegetation becomes suddenly uncomfortably lush.

'I was happier about the rain on my lawn than about the arrest of Karadzic,' he says. 'It's too little, too late. I have taught myself not to hate, because if I hate, that is yet another burden on my back. I want justice, but not revenge - I just want my soul to be in peace. But I cannot forgive. How can I forgive someone who shows no remorse, like Karadzic and all the little Karadzics around here who did these things to us? How can I forgive things that were done by people who are proud of doing it, would do it again and do not ask my forgiveness?'

By the end of the war, Radovan Karadzic had for three years had his hand clasped by the leaders of the Western world, as a fellow politician and diplomat. Then, suddenly, after his indictment by the newly established Hague tribunal, he became a wanted war criminal. But while our journey to the camps had taken us down the chain of command from Karadzic to Omarska over four days, The Hague's long road to Karadzic worked the other way round over 13 years, beginning with the minnows.

In 1996, while 60,000 foreign troops patrolled Bosnia, the fugitive Karadzic moved openly between his home in Pale and the Prijedor area. The first man to be arrested and delivered to the tribunal was Dusko Tadic, a parish-pump sadist from Kozarac, who had kept a café called Tibet.

Tadic had toured the camps to kill and rape at leisure, and became The Hague's first conviction, in May 1997. I had not known him, and testified as an expert witness. But I was curious about the people I had met; much was known about Karadzic by now, but not his middle management, the people we had met that day along the chain of command, on our way into Omarska. I found Deputy President Koljevic in Banja Luka; he had been a mid-ranking Shakespeare scholar before going into politics with Karadzic, but was now mumbling into his cigar about 'digging up the bones, we were digging up the bones' - though it was not clear which bones.

So, finally, in court at The Hague, the story of Karadzic's camps began to be told. Now Mark Harmon and Alan Tieger, two remarkable Americans, the latter having prosecuted Dusko Tadic at the outset, are due to bring the case against Karadzic.

The survivors' campaign for a memorial at Omarska - which is now owned by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, and produces 1.5 million tonnes of iron ore a year - is four years old, led by Satko Mujagic, a survivor living in Leiden, the Netherlands. Satko's foundation, Optimisti 2004, has been building sports and communal facilities in Kozarac, and he is back this week to inaugurate a gym with 49,000 euros given by wellwishers and what Satko believes to be the first and only donation ever made by the Serbian authorities to a returnee project, of 15,000 euros.

'It is one thing, and a good thing, to arrest the man, Karadzic,' he says. 'He was the big war criminal, the man with the idea for all that happened. But it is another thing to arrest the idea. Karadzic's ideas live on in the existence of Republika Srpska, and if this is all about joining the European Union, for the Republika Srpska to join the EU would be like Europe admitting a part of Germany that still agreed with Hitler, just because it is in Europe. I have rebuilt the house you are staying in now, but in 1992 it was burned while my grandmother was inside - she is one of the 3,205 people still missing - and I was taken to Omarska. No one has ever said sorry for what they did, no one has ever helped us to return and the authorities oppose outright any monument in Omarska to what they did.'

I remember Satko playing ball with his little girl against the wall of the cells where he was kept in Omarska during a visit when she was two years old. Now she is six, and Satko says: 'When I told Lejla that Karadzic had been arrested, she said that if he killed more than one man, he should go to prison for life, but in prison should not be starved like her father - no one should do that.'

Dzemal Partusic - the man who had not wanted to tell any lies, but could not tell the truth in the Omarska canteen in 1992 - has also rebuilt his home here, on a hillside in Kozarac. In the week of Karadzic's arrest, he is free and happy to talk as he feels.

'It is important that Karadzic has been arrested,' he says, above a beautiful view stretching towards Omarska. 'I see him as a second Hitler, the person who thought he could do whatever he wanted to us, and did. He was a man the world negotiated with, but I saw him as a man you cannot negotiate with. So that is good. But what are we left with?

'We can build our houses, we can show them we are back, that this is our country, but we can never get back our lives as they were before. Karadzic being arrested will not give us back our dead.'

Eventually Fikret Alic and I take a drive out of flourishing Kozarac to the hamlet where he grew up and from which he fled into the mountains, only to be captured - while most of his friends were killed. 'We found parts of their remains later,' he says. We stop at a mosque, where a plaque names the hundreds of dead from just that tiny neighbourhood. 'That is my brother,' he says, 'and that my grandfather.' We drive on, past the rebuilt houses, to the cement foundations of what Fikret hopes will one day be his home again, and where he and his mother, sisters, wife and their children were yesterday due to cook a lamb barbecue. I praise the whole, defiant miracle of Kozarac. 'Oh,' counsels Fikret in reply, 'it is not a problem to build a house. It is more of a problem to awake a dead man.

This article is posted in the Features - Weekly Bridge Publication

2002

The emaciated Bosnian man whose image was at the centre of a libel dispute between ITN and Living Marxism has praised the TV crew for their coverage.
Bosnian Fikret Alic paid tribute to ITN reporter Penny Marshall. He also expressed his gratitude to the TV crew who had filmed the Serb-run Trnopolje camp where he and hundreds of others were held captive in August 1992. "Until Penny arrived, no one knew around the world what had happened and that we were all prisoners," he told ITN through an interpreter. Ms Marshall and her colleague Ian Williams were each awarded £150,000 by the High Court on Tuesday, following a successful libel action against Living Marxism. The magazine ran a story questioning the veracity of the coverage.

But Mr Alic added that after the camera crew left, conditions at the camp deteriorated further. "Our lives changed a lot," he said. "I would like to say that behind the cameramen there were Serb soldiers and they shouted to write everybody's names who said something in front of the camera.

He went on: "At the time they didn't know why they were saying that but the camera crew left and they started killings." He added: "Justice is in The Hague. I wouldn't like something like that to happen anywhere in the world.

29.08.2008.

Montenigran Radovan Karadzic captured on July 21 2008 in Belgrade

Video: Bosnians celebrate on the streets of Sarajevo after arrest of war criminal Radovan Karadic Here

Radovan Karadzic was born in Montenegro. He is a citizen of Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia. In 1992 a few days after Bosnia became independent he had begun ethnic cleansing and genocide of all non - Serbs. He attended the Serbian church, kissed the chetnicks flag, believed in God, crossed himself, felt he is a member of a "superior" Serbian Nation, and had been convinced that Bosnians are Turks who needed to disappear.

Bosnians have nothing to do with Ottoman Turkish Empire. Ottoman Empire ruled Bosnia for about 500 years as well as Austro - Hungary for about 100 years and later Bosnia was also occupied by Nazi Germany during the 2nd World War. But for some reason this man was still mad on Turks. The Turks during Ottoman Empire who occupied Bosnia are dead. This was an endless, self-defeating and pointless pursuit of revenge. After genocide and ethnic cleansing, Radovan Karadzic lived all over the places in his holly land Serbia rather than being in prison where he should be until rest of his life (Europe doesn't have death penalty). After he was captured Bosnians went on the streets to celebrate and intentionally waived with Turkish flags!

Radovan Karadzictook the identity of "Dragan Dabic" and played a role of a doctor of alternative medicine.

Interview with Radovan Karadzic's nephew here.Of course they knew where he was.

Capturing Radovan Karadzic was a victory catch but people also want Ratko Mladic. Ultimately running away and not taking responsibility achieve nothing meaningful either collectively or individually. He believed that he would never face any punishment for destroying lives of innocent people.

24.08.2008.

The Butcher of Balkans

Finally ... Mr Evil captured. Radovan Karadzic, the village man.

Radovan Karadzic was hiding in the mountains and villages of Bosnia and for years lived in apartment in Belgrade under someone's stolen identity as a doctor, without his family and children. Hiding all these years, pretending to be someone else --- this is yet another Montenegrin Serbian "hero" who spent his entire life to be remembered in the world as the Butcher of Balkans.

All these years Radovan Karadzic refused to take any responsibility for genocide and ethnic cleansing and aggression launched on multi-ethnic internationally recognized Bosnia. Now he is forced to answer on many questions in Court, not just to Bosnians but to the entire World!! If he was captured earlier perhaps people would eat him alive that's how much pain and suffering he caused too many families, and this country.

This was the man whom Sarajevo city took under the wings and offered him university education, life, happiness and freedom regardless of his religion, nationality, ethnicity and hatred for our multiethnic country. Capturing Karadzic can never make up for all Bosnians lost but because he is & was a leader of Serb nationalists (chetniks) hopefully they will sooner or later realize their "hero" and a leader had failed and no dreams about Greater Serbia will ever come true.

Mr Karadzic who not so long ago claimed that Bosnians won't exist will perhaps never see Greater Serbia in his life time again. He ended up with a title of the butcher of Balkans, now sweating in his little war criminal prison cell. Bosnians know one thing for sure, Radovan Karadzic will never have Sarajevo cevapi from the Bascarsija ( Sarajevo ) again.

It's obvious that people of Serbia participated in his capture by providing the information about his whereabouts, and that way betrayed him. At least that is how Karadzic and his followers believe. With such unexpected betrayal people of Serbia finally decided to show the world that he indeed was not worth much longer. However, even with such a great act they are still responsible for not capturing Karadzic earlier and for prolonging the pain and suffering of families of the victims all these years. In a sense, this capture was too late.

This man portrayed himself to be a religious man. He went to Orthodox Serbian Church and brainwashed people. He portrayed Serbs as victims vs everyone else perceived as their enemy in every place where Serbs resided. When infamous Russian writer was shooting on Sarajevo Karadzic explained that Sarajevo is occupied by Turks and Bosnians are actually Serbs. This is what he was teaching his people. This man could never live in democratic society.

Bosnians are glad that he was captured because his followers will realize there are consequences. This man wanted the entire Bosnian population to disappear. Is it even possible to ever comprehend his frame of Mind? He came to a conclusion that the only way Serbian Nation can exist across several countries and in multi-ethnic Bosnia --- is if all other nations simply disappear.

In this first clip Karadzic says he worries about 2 things, his life and the speed of the trial. Then he handed to the Judge four page paper previously written in his prison cell.

Video #1here. ( Karadzic the most wanted for war crimes & genocide in Bosnia)

26.02.2008.

The Life Style in Sarajevo

Sarajevans love fashion and want always to look good whether they go out for shopping or dinner. When you walk through the main street Ferhadija you have a feeling you are watching the fashion show. This is simply the life style of Sarajevans before the war, during the war and after the war. Sarajevans go out every night, so Monday through Sunday looks like Saturday & Sunday always. People in Sarajevo love to socialize, travel, watch club soccer games, go to the clubs, and dress fashionably.

During the war

Meliha Vareshanovic walks proudly during the siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo

The lady on the bike looks pretty cool. Yes it's the war and she is the target for snipers in the heart of Europe, yet to dress and act as if everything is normal made Sarajevans feel easier. This is a self-defense mechanism. When something is too painful and too strange to be taking place in the heart of Europe, people refuse to believe it's happening.

Another factor is also people simply feel better because in the war you don't know how long you will manage to survive. The city was totally cut off and surrounded by Serbian forces who were shelling the city from the top, and attacking from all sides to tighten the circle. Sarajevans simply wanted to live and refused to act as their victims. In some way by dressing nice and having make up on, people were saying: " Look, there is nothing you can do about it, because I am alive, healthy and happy ".

Petition to the White House - YES to Kosovo Independence

A Petiton to Urge That Kosovo gets Independence, Nation-State Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity.

I VOTE YES on SENATE RESOLUTION 135
I VOTE YES ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 309
I VOTE YES ON HOUSE RESOLUTIONS 36
I VOTE NO ON HOUSE RESOLUTION 445 sponsored by Reps Melissa Bean ( D-IL) and Dan Burton (R-IN)

I support the United States position that Kosovo-Metohija gains Independence. Such position will most definitely contribute to stability in the area . Serbs continue to flagrantly disregard international law which provides for the respect of the sovereignty of all other nations in the region except when it comes to their own. Serbia should not have the right to interference in internal affairs of Kosovo or in any other Nation in the region. They are a troublemakers in Balkans. All of these below is their act.

1) Ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs by Serbs in Balkan region

2) Genocide in Bosnia in the heart of Europe under UN protection

3) People who came to Bosnia all over the world were killed during the humanitarian actions

4) Montenigran Serb Karadzic and Serb Mladic still at large 13 years after!

5) Shelling of Sarajevo, the most beautiful and peaceful Olympic city in Europe that for centuries had been multi-ethnic until Serbs started their nationalistic politics!

13.11.2007.

Bosnian videos of Hope ( survival videos )

"Bosnian King" - Dragan Vikic was Commander in Chief of popular Elite Bosnian Fighters during the Serbian terror on Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1992. The guys are young but that's all Sarajevo had at that time. Dragan Vikic will appear at the end of the video ( sorry taken off from you tube ), with dogs, undeniable charisma and love for Sarajevo and its people!

This music video was created at the deadliest time of Serbian aggression on Sarajevo and Bosnia by our most famous Bosnian singer, Dino Merlin.

Dino is simply trying to give the hope to people. I can say this music saved many of us from going insane. In this time, you would be considered lucky to be a soldier because at least you could defend yourself and live ( survive ), everyone else was a victim like this little Sarajevan girl who is dying from obviously Serbian shelling or Serbian sniper and someone ( her dad? ) is trying to get her away from the sniper and take her to the improvised "emergency room".

You could see fear of the man behind who is afraid that both will be shot because that's what serbian snipers have done in the past. They would first shoot at the innocent victim and then let someone approach the victim just to shoot another person and the victim again.

01.02.2007.

Sarajevo, Market Massacre (Markale)

Photo: Sarajevo, Market Massacre (Markale)

People killed at the Markale Market, in Sarajevo, were waiting in the line to get bread when Serbs launched shelling from the top of hills. Their blood was shed all over the street. This is when you realize that a human being can be objectified just like the piece of meat.

Regarding food during the war. There was no food in the war as you might know, just humanitarian help, we called it "lunch packages". Of course this was not real lunch, neither a package. It was simply the mini food in small brown plastic bags, that looked like samples of different food. Similar to lunch packages sold in food stores in America for children in elementary schools. A few crackers, a piece of cheese... You could not kill the hunger with this. It was just enough to save you from the total starvation. In Bosnia during the war everybody lost 20 lbs at least. In the war you are under a constant stress 24/7/365 and there was NO FOOD. People, especially children were dying from hunger. There was no milk or baby food or any food whatsoever. You eventually under these circumstances look anorexic.

See below is the video of Serb solder of Yugoslavian Army ( read army from SERBIA ) who had no problem stating on camera he has intention to shoot on Bosnian building. Of course he did not build our homeland so it did not matter to him. Serbian theory was that Bosnians did not allow anyone to get in the city therefore they ( Serbs ) had to liberate it from Bosnians even though most Serbs left knowing that attack will take the place or they participated in attacks on Sarajevo themselves.

If Sarajevo was surrounded (occupied ) by Bosnians ( Serbian false story to fool Serbs to allegedly "liberate" them) how come this ex-Yugoslavian ( read Serbian ) tanks were in Sarajevo going through city just like that with no fear whatsover? If Bosnian occupied their own city, how was it possible for this tank to enter the city in the first place? Yugoslavian tanks are the evidence that Serbia played a major role in aggression on Bosnia simply by supplying the tanks, and army.

Their tanks were stationed on top of hills around Sarajevo to shoot on people, like on Markale, Sarajevan xafs place. See for yourself. Only insane person would not see this as evidence of how the aggression started, was initiated and supported by SERBIA.

So whose tanks in the video are those? They fell from Mars? Tanks clearly show they are SERBIAN from neighboring country who wanted part of Bosnian cake to add to their territory. The guy in video speaks in Serbian dialect. He wears the Yugoslavian ( not Bosnian ) uniform in the middle of Sarajevo.

That would be like seeing Japanese military tanks in the middle of Washington D.C, claiming they will shoot into the building, while the Court of Justice explains that Japan can not really be found at fault for aggression because Japan did not really "participate" in attacks but it is found guilty for FAILURE TO PREVENT ATTACKS launched by their own Japanese people. So Serbia got away!

01.02.2007.

Bosnian Nation and Bosnian People

Bosnia & Herzegovina or short Bosnia is the country of Bosnianherzegovinian or short Bosnian Nation and Bosnian People.

Bosnia is multiethnic and multireligious country that has its own BOSNIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY.

Such Identity in free and democratic country is - given to people who admit Bosnia as their country and are nationals/citizens of Bosnian Nation.

Every person can change their religion or religious identity. People also can change their Nationality and/or National identity. This is free will of every person.

Photo: Internationally recognized Map of Bosnia

Bosnia is, for many considered an occupied country (see Dayton Agreement) in which Bosnian people of all backgrounds and religions were sorted, categorized, recognized and glorified into 3 ethnic groups according to 3 major religions.

SEE THE MAP OF BOSNIA and its Neighbors, AND WHAT ROLE THEY'VE PLAYED in Bosnian War.

People of only these 3 major religions are admitted in Constitution as 3 separate ethnic groups, while Bosnians who refuse to be in any of the groups have their Bosnian Ethnicity and/or National Identity to Bosnia either totally denied within the country or suppressed ( suppression is the process of deliberately trying to stop it ) and negated/ruled out. ( Author: Reader from Switzerland "Proud to be Bosnian", 1/2007)

30.10.2006.

This is a city - Ivo Andric

This is a city.
In every sense of the word.
And at whatever time of the day, and from whatever elevation you look down at Sarajevo, you always, even if unconsciously, think the same: this is a city, a city wearing out and dying, and at the same time being born and transformed.

30.10.2006.

How Sarajevans survived the war in 1992 - True Story

A survivor of the Bosnian war, Elma Dizdar spoke with Zubeida Mustafa on overcoming the traumas of the war. When the Serbian army attacked the capital of Bosnia in April 1992, Elma was a 20-year-old student, studying languages and philosophy at the University of Sarajevo. She and her family did not leave their home throughout the war and braved the hardship of the siege —the longest in history .

Here is Elma’s story:

“It was April 6, 1992, Eid for the Muslims of Bosnia, when the Yugoslav army struck. The Serbian soldiers had been taking up position on the hills surrounding Sarajevo since winter and we sensed that something out of the ordinary was taking place. However, we never really anticipated a war. Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic society but we had never been conscious of our ethnic distinctiveness. Many of my friends were Serbs and Croats with whom I had grown up, and none of us believed that we would fight each other.

“When the war came, it was not really an ethnic war. Neither was religion an issue. Under Communism, the Muslims, as well as the Christians, could not practise their faith openly. Hence our parents like many others, never taught their children about religion. They didn’t want to confuse us.

“There had been tension and rumours were rife. Kosovo, Croatia, Slovenia had seen fighting, but the Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Bosnians in Bosnia were closely knit and war seemed so remote, at least to me. We didn’t know about the Greater Serbia plan Milosevic had been drawing up.

”When the Yugoslav army attacked, we were shocked beyond belief. I remember being glued to the TV watching the unarmed students marching towards the bridge across the River Miljacka, which separated the city from the hills. Suddenly the shooting started and a young medical student fell dead. She became the first Bosnian victim of the war. Then came the explosions and the firing. The war had started.

“Sarajevo was under siege and the people were under attack. We were always haunted by the fear of death. People were being killed and one didn’t know who would be the next victim. Bloodstained streets became a common sight for us. Friends were struck by snipers’ bullets and died before our eyes. Going to the university was an ordeal. It involved an hour’s walk through sniper fire — petrol was a luxury only for senior administrators of the city. The biggest act of kindness to me in those days was being offered a lift by someone in a car — it cut short the time of exposure to the bullets.

“We knew that if we tried to create some semblance of normality in our lives it would help us stay sane. Hence this effort to keep up university life, even though most of the faculty had gone. But those who were there went out of their way to help by teaching us and lending their own books to us. The schools were kept going by setting up small classes in sheltered spots in every locality so that the children did not have to go out and get exposed to the snipers. It was the teacher who took the risk and walked miles to reach the children in an improvised school. Yet most people were so gripped by fear and depression that they simply refused to leave their basements where they spent their time round the clock.

“To make matters worse, there was no electricity or heating for months at a stretch. The first winter (in 1992) we just burnt whatever we could lay our hands on - even our summer shoes and clothes because it was so cold that it was difficult to believe that the weather would change again to warm our shivering bodies. There was so little food to eat that we were starving and people shriveled away. Whenever the humanitarian aid arrived, it brought hope of more food.

“The physical hardship and the constant feeling of fear apart, the worst aspect of the war was that it robbed people of their self-esteem. It was degrading and dehumanizing. It was humiliating to line up for food to be doled out. With the economy totally shattered, no one was paid for the work he did. Yet we continued working because it kept us functional. By focusing on our survival, we could keep ourselves going.

Bosnian children in the war

“It might seem strange to the outside world, but the fact is that for us in Sarajevo this was a war to save our city. We were Sarajevans first and Bosnians or Bosnians Serbs or Bosnian Croats later. That is why it was a multi ethnic group, which defended the city. There were cases of a Bosnian Serb fighting his own brother in the Yugoslav army. It was a sense of 'belongingness' we all felt for Sarajevo.”

“Once the war started and the battle lines were drawn, I never wanted to leave. I could have gone away and made a comfortable life for myself in the West. But I knew it would have created moral dilemmas for me which I would never have resolved. Besides I knew that we were not fighting an ethnic war. The war was not against the Bosnian Serbs. There were many Bosnian Serbs on our side too and they fought alongside us. They shared our rage when we discovered that the attacks were directed against the children. How could I go away? I had to stay back and defend the city and help the children survive the trauma. I am proud of my people who survived the horrors of the war and continue to be functional.”

***

Elma visited Pakistan in 2001. She was participating in a seminar organized by Dr Arshad Husain, a psychiatrist at Missouri University, who led a trauma team from his faculty on 23 trips to Bosnia to train mental health workers and teachers to help children deal with the tragedy and trauma of war. (Elma's choice - DAWN - The Review, November 22, 2001 )

08.09.2006.

SARAJEVO HOUSES AND ARCHITECTURE

Sarajevo is very unique and romantic city. There are lots of parks, trees and beautiful sightseeing. It has lots of history and beautiful architecture. People say there is something about Sarajevo that makes you want to stay there. Sarajevo is surrounded by mountains and is gorgeous in all four seasons. The climate is very pleasant.

Native Bosnians, Sarajevans really love their city. They are very proud of being born there, being native, living there, being part of it... Sarajevans even developed their own way of talk, and in many ways it is cool to be Sarajevan.

The houses are usually built from the brick, and with balconies and high quality material that lasts long. The garden is important, thus Bosnians pay lots of attention to area around the house. They usually plant all kind of flowers, roses, vegetables, and fruits in small gardens.

View over the Sarajevo brawery 2004, pbase.com

Bosnians, Sarajevans in general usually build their own houses, you can see that from the pictures, almost entire city is covered with private houses. These houses are not sold, like in the US for example, but rather kept for life, and then left to their children, who again, would not sell it, but rather leave it to children again.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Photo by mhodges

As seen in this photo, clay roofs are ubiquitous throughout Sarajevo.

Bosnians like to live in groups, so the families often build own houses next to each other, and if the family has more than one child, the children are helped to build their house next to their parents.

Bosnian old house

Bascarsija, Old Town - Sarajevo, Photo by Simon Belcher

Begova Mosque Doorway - Sarajevo, Photo by Simon Belcher

( also referred to as The Ghazi Husrevbeg Mosque ) The building has undergone extensive renovations since the Bosnian war in 1992.

Gateway into a Garden with red roses,Photo by Simon Belcher

Here is the great article about Sarajevo history that I find accurate.

"For over four hundred years, mosques, synagogues, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches have been built and stand side by side in Sarajevo.

Citizens of different nationalities and religious orientations lived and worked together, developing their city and their own style of togetherness regardless of conquerors and foreign rulers whose identity changed over and over again."

Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to a 1991 census, its population was 529,672; currently estimated at around 400,000.

( According to Census from the year 2000. population of Sarajevo is 390.534 )

Sarajevo is located close to the geometric center of the triangularly-shaped Bosnia and Herzegovina, and covers an area of some 142 km².
The city is surrounded by mountains which are part of the Dinaric Alps mountain range that winds through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia and Montenegro.

Sarajevo Bosnia "Vilsonovo"

The city is considered one of the most important cities in the Balkans and has had a long and rich history ever since it was founded by the Ottomans in 1461, when the first Ottoman governor of Bosnia, Isa-beg Ishaković, transformed this village cluster into a city and a state capital by building a number of key objects, including a mosque, a closed xafsplace, a public bath, a hostel and the Governor's palace (Saray) which gave the city its present name.

Sarajevo flourished in the 16th century when its greatest donor and builder Gazi Husrev-beg built most of what is now the old city.

In the event that triggered World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. After World War II, Sarajevo grew rapidly as it became an important regional industrial center in Yugoslavia. The peak of city growth occurred in the early 1980s, when Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Sarajevo Olympics 1984, Bosnia

On April 6, 1992, Sarajevo was surrounded by forces of Bosnian Serbs. The warfare that lasted until October 1995 resulted in large scale destruction and dramatic population shifts. Reconstruction of Sarajevo started as soon as the war ended, in 1995. By 2003, most of the city had been rebuilt, with only a few remaining visible ruins in the city centre. Modern office buildings and skyscrapers have since been constructed throughout the city." ( meridiantours )

08.09.2006.

Amnesty International raising awareness

Amnesty International is my favorite organization. They work hard to protect Human Rights all over the world. People who have anything humane in them, can not approve other people's suffering, no matter who those people are and where they come from. Everyone deserves to be free of torture, enslavement, and exploitation. There are ways to resolve the conflicts without being brutal.Human Rights Day is celebrated on December 10th, across the world.

" Amnesty International hopes to light at least 8,000 candles worldwide to commemorate the people who were massacred at Srebrenica's genocide.

You can plan a vigil or other event to commemorate the victims of the massacre and raise awareness about the fact that some suspects implicated in human rights abuses connected to the Srebrenica massacre still have not been brought to justice.

There are many people all over the world who do it in their own way in attempt to bring awareness about suffering and pain and injustices in different ways. Here are songs about Sarajevo and people's suffering during the Siege of Sarajevo.

On November 24, 1992, the Heal the World Foundation collaborated with AmeriCares to bring 43 tons of medication, blankets and winter clothes, totaling 2.1 million dollars, to war-torn Sarajevo. The resources were allocated under the supervision of the United Nations. In December of the same year, Heal the World foundation assisted in airlifting additional relief supplies to the children of Bosnia, in association with Operation Christmas Child. The foundation transported 30,000 "shoebox gifts" of toys, school items, photographs, and inspirational letters collected by UK schoolchildren.

These are not soldiers. These are regular people picked up from their homes according to their first and last names and nationality ( all non-Serbs ) and taken to a concentration camp! Now the first and last name can't tell you for instance the level of religiousness and personal beliefs, but that did not matter. The nationality also could not tell you for instance anything about the political views of each individual, but that did not matter as well!

All non-Serbs were sorted and categorized according to shallow minds in which someone's name and national belonging was a good reason to be put in concentration camp! Now, how is not such practice ethnic cleansing? Sure it is. These people had nothing to do with politics. They were just regular folks living in the villages, unarmed who were picked up by armed Serbians from their homes. They also did not know that they would be tortured and starved to death.

Most of them were killed at the later time.. This is reality, chew it. This took place in the heart of Europe. The World is doing something very wrong if ethnic cleansing and genocide in 20th century is an option!

Ed Vulliamy has been on of the first who revealed the horrors of Omarska, Trnopolje and other Serbian concentration camps in Bosnia, to a stunned world.

Could you picture yourself behind this wire fence?

Would you want your wife and loved ones to know about you being tortured?

What would you think about Serbs? What would you do to survive?

1992 Bosnians in Serb held concentration camp. Photograph: ITN

Concentration camp, Trnopolje, Bosnia. Men were from 15 to 90 years old.

13.03.2006.

Serb ethnic cleansing in 1913

LONDON – The bombing here on 7 July unfortunately obscured commemoration of a vastly larger crime that occurred ten years ago: the cold-blooded massacre at Srebrenica of 8,000 Bosnian men and boys by Serb forces. Interestingly, no one seems to have made the possible link between the London bombing and the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre.

This ghastly Balkan slaughter, the worst crime in Europe since the Stalin-Hitler era, occurred as part of a Serb campaign to exterminate or expel non-Serbs from lands they claimed as historical Greater Serbia. Srebrenica had been declared a `safe haven’ for Bosnians by the United Nations, a place the could take refuge from savage mass murder, rape and expulsion of civilians by Serbs. Bosnians were assured they would be protected by the UN if they laid down what few small arms they had.

The Serbs ignored the UN, stormed the city and methodically slaughtered 8,000 Bosnian men and boys. The killing extended over three days and was videotaped.Cowardly Dutch UN troops supposedly guarding the refugees took no action to halt the mass killing. They simply stood by while Serb forces rounded up thousands of civilians and took them off to be executed.

Calls for NATO air strikes to end the atrocity were blocked by France and Britain, who were covertly backing Serbia while officially protesting its crimes. Both were seeking political influence and arms sales to what they assumed would be an expanded, post-war Serbia. Over 250,000 people died in the 1991-1995 wars that tore apart Yugoslavia, and 2.3 million were made refugees. The overwhelming majority were Bosnians.

In spite of irrefutable evidence of Serbia’s crimes, half of Serbs, and their jailed leader, Slobodan Milosevic, still today deny any guilt, and claim Serbia was an innocent victims of aggression by Croats, Bosnians, America and Germany. But according to CIA, the UN, and leading human rights groups, 90% of atrocities in Bosnia and, later, Kosova, the majority Albanian region held by Serbia, were committed by Serb paramilitary units operating under orders from the Serb regime in Belgrade.

Week before last, members of Belgrade University actually called the Srebrenica massacre `a liberation.’ I note this point because in 1989, when I first warned that Milosevic, a communist banker termed neo-fascist demagogue, was going to plunge Yugoslavia into a nationalist-religious-race war, that same university passed special resolutions denouncing me. It is true that Serbs suffered greatly in the wars begun by their leader Milosevic. Tens of thousands were driven or fled from Croatia and Kosovo. Serbia was ravaged by NATO bombing and is bankrupt. But their dictator began this disastrous war. Serbs cannot escape the reality of their egregious crimes by hiding behind the fiction they are the victims of a western conspiracy.

They were victims, all right, but of the poisonous, Nazi-style racism and religious hatred against Bosnians, Croats, and Albanians of Kosova whipped up by Milosevic and Serb extremists, then fanned by medievalist elements in the Serbian Orthodox Church who kept urging a `new crusade against the Turks.’ Mosques were blown up and graveyards defiled. Bosnians were relentlessly murdered, thousands of women gang raped, and villages burned to the ground. It was genocide in its rawest and most loathsome form.

An entire historical mythology was spun about Serbia as bulwark against the wicked Ottoman Turks in the 15th and 16th centuries, and of modern Serbia as victim of Europe’s great powers. In historical fact, Serbia spent more time allied to the Ottoman Empire than it did fighting it, leaving the Hungarians and Albanians to battle the Sultan’s armies. During the First and Second Balkan Wars, 1912/1913 Serbia’s efforts to dominate the region, conquer Albania and Macedonia, and ethnically cleanse the region of non-Serbs, lead to her ultimate defeat.

Mother Theresa, an Albanian, was driven from her home in Kosovo by Serb ethnic cleansing in 1913, the first of three such waves of ethnic terrorism that culminated in Milosevic’s giant terror campaign that drove 800,000 Albanian Kosovars to flight in 1999. Serb apologists, notably Canada’s Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, have tried to justify the Srebrenica massacre as `an over-reaction’(MacKenzie’s words) provoked by Bosnian raids from the Srebrenica pocket. Those minor raids, which were commonplace on all sides in the Bosnian conflict, could in no way justify the industrial-style massacre of 8,000 civilians that were worthy of the Soviet NKVD or Nazi SS.

This monstrous act is clearly a crime under the Geneva Conventions and other international laws. MacKenzie, a failed general turned would-be politician, has zero credibility. After passing himself off as a neutral commentator on Yugoslavia, he was exposed by the media to have been paid by Serb political groups to promote their cause. The general, who thus disgraced his former uniform and his country, at first denied being paid, then had to admit it when confronted by the evidence. Yet this discredited officer is still cited by Canadian media as an `authority’ on Balkan and military affair.

President Bill Clinton, finally ordered the United States and NATO to the rescue. American groups, seeing a resurgence of Nazi racist ideology in Serbia, strongly pressed Washington to intervene to stop genocide in Bosnia. While these groups made a noble effort to defend Bosnians and Albanians, the rest of the World did nothing but whine as people were murdered in Bosnia. Only Iran and the Afghan mujahidin took action. Turkey, the traditional defender, with a tough, 600,000-man army, did absolutely nothing.

In the eyes of the world, the racial-religious terror unleashed by Milosevic covered Serbia with shame. It remains today a pariah nation. This is tragic for Serbia, a nation once renowned for its wartime courage, heroism, and big-hearted people. Under Milosevic, pig farmers and criminals took the country over. Serbia became a nation that mixed Nazi ideology with gangster-run government. Serbia must cleanse itself of this frightful legacy if it wants to rejoin Europe. Admit its crimes to the world and its own people, and atone. Its attempts at accepting some blame for genocide have so far been only half-hearted and insincere.

The Serb government must be forced to hand over without delay the two war criminals responsible for Srebrenica and other atrocities, Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic. Both have long been hidden by the Belgrade government. Belgrade should be financially and diplomatically isolated until these mass murderers are made to face long overdue justice. That is the only way Serbia will be able to rejoin the polity of civilized nations. Copyright: Eric S. Margolis, 2005 - July 18, 2005 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Published at Bigeye.com since 1995 with permission, as a courtesy and in appreciation.

13.03.2006.

Never forget Srebrenica

This is what one blogger said on his blog:
" I am not proud of my attitude during the Bosnia war. I viewed it as a European problem and something that we did not need to get involved in. Further, I viewed American military action as a 'wag the dog' tactic designed to divert attention away from domestic political issues. I was wrong. That attitude, was a big part of what allowed the Srebrenica massacre, and others, to happen. posted by Dave Justus | 7/12/2005 " ( davejustus.blogspot.com )
Estimated 8000 Bosnian men and boys found in mass graves
2004 Red Cross Data:

"According to data from the Red Cross, almost 17,000 persons who went missing during the conflict are still unaccounted for. Many of them "disappeared" after being taken into custody by the military and security forces; those responsible have continued to enjoy impunity. (See NCH #37.) [Source: AI, Report 2005 (2005) 58, 59.]

On 19 April 2004, the ICTY Appeals Chamber confirmed that in July 1995 Serb forces had committed genocide in Srebrenica. The Appeals Chamber sentenced Serb Army General Radislav Krstic to 35 years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting genocide. The Commission identified the location of mass graves, some of which were previously unknown. By the end of 2004, the bodies of approximately 1,300 people killed after the fall of Srebrenica had been exhumed and identified.

Serbs had previously claimed that only one hundred Bosnians had been executed and that another 1,900 had died in combat or from exhaustion. " (See NCH #37.) [Sources: HRW, World Report 2005 (2005) 359-62; AI, Report 2005 (2005) 58-59.]

Don't forget Srebrenica, Photo by boxer, bug.hr

Bosnian man visiting Srebrenica graves, Photo by boxer, bug.hr

Often the entire families, 15 or 20 members were killed.

Little Bosnian Girl among coffins, Photo by Elvis Barukcic

Srebrenica ( where killings took place ) is beautiful Bosnian city, photo by Mina 17

I was in Srebrenica before the genocide, in time of peace. It is a beautiful peaceful city, has almost untouched nature and many trees all around the city. I went to Srebrenica over the weekend with my friends. I remember going to parks, having breakfast in one of the places. Everyone should visit. It is a very sad city now. I can imagine that if you go there in July when Bosnian people have mass burial of all newly identified Bosnian victims - it is very hard to watch.

This is very emotional for Bosnian people and I am not sure if I could actually go and see it. Bosnian mothers lost their husbands, brothers, fathers, grandfathers, cousins and their male children. Just a few survived. The loss of the child and/or loved ones can never be healed. The victims were brutally slaughtered. Some people get heart attacks on the grave of their loved ones.

Bosnian families can not accept this. They want the justice. They really want each and every man who killed their children and loved ones to answer their questions and go to prison until rest of their lives. The problem is most Serbian war criminals are still free. That makes people very frustrated. Serbs ethnically cleansed this area and now they live there! In fact, Srebrenica is not "the safest area" even now. This area is still populated by the same Serbs who lived there at the time of genocide.

Billboard in Srebrenica

On the photo here the billboard message says in Bosnian: Srebrenica 1995 - 2005. To see. To know. To remember. Then someone wrote across in Serbian: There is going to be a return.

Message of hate handwritten by Serbs in the heart of Srebrenica where genocide took place.

Serbs claimed originally there are about 100 people killed. They admitted 100.

Every year, in July, Bosnian people ( Bosanskohercgovacki narod ) go there, together with everyone else in the world ( foreign people who visit every year, journalists, TV stations, and everyone else who follows events in the region ... ). Bosnian people also march every July ( walk by foot usually from Sarajevo ). It takes them around four days to get to Srebrenica. The distance is 120 km. Here is the photo:

Bosnian people marching to Srebrenica, Photo by Amel Emric

But then Serbs nationalists ( chetnicks ) appear too with their flags, proud of what they have done in Srebrenica and to disturb. Bosnian people see the visit as the moral duty so eventually I will have to go there.

Sergej is amazingly talented and admired by Bosnians. When he wanted to coach the Bosnian National Soccer Team, Serbs blocked his entry for political reasons. Sergej is also known for his love to Bosnia ( patriotism ).

This is a city.
In every sense of the word.
And at whatever time of the day, and from whatever elevation you look down at Sarajevo, you always, even if unconsciously, think the same: this is a city, a city wearing out and dying, and at the same time being born and transformed.